We, the people of Texas, in order to form a government, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence and general welfare,
and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this constitution.

ARTICLE I.

[The Legislative Branch]

Section 1. The powers of this government shall be divided into three
departments, viz: legislative, executive, and judicial, which shall remain forever
separate and distinct.

Sec. 2. The legislative power shall be vested in a senate and house of
representatives, to be styled the "Congress of the republic of Texas."

Sec. 3. The members of the house of representatives shall be chosen
annually, on the first Monday of September each year, until congress shall otherwise
provide by law, and shall hold their offices one year from the date of their election.

Sec. 4. No person shall be eligible to a seat in the house of
representatives, until he shall have attained the age of twenty-five years, shall be a
citizen of the republic, and shall have resided in the county or district six months next
preceding his election.

Sec. 5. The house of representatives shall not consist of less than
twenty-four, nor more than forty members, until the population shall amount to one hundred
thousand souls, after which time the whole number of representatives shall not be less
than forty, nor more than one hundred: Provided, however, That each county
shall be entitled to at least one representative.

Sec. 6. The house of representatives shall choose their speaker and
other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

Sec. 7. The senators shall be chosen by districts, as nearly equal in
free population (free negroes and Indians excepted) as practicable; and the number of
senators shall never be less than one-third nor more than one-half the number of
representatives, and each district shall be entitled to one member and no more.

Sec. 8. The senators shall be chosen for the term of three years, on
the first Monday in September; shall be citizens of the republic, reside in the district
for which they are respectively chosen at least one year before the election, and shall
have attained the age of thirty years.

Sec. 9. At the first session of congress after the adoption of this
constitution, the senators shall be divided into three classes, as nearly equal as
practicable; the seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the end of
the first year; of the second class, at the end of the second year; the third class, at
the end of the third year, in such a manner that one-third shall be chosen each year
thereafter.

Sec. 10. The vice-president of the republic shall be president of the
senate, but shall not vote on any question, unless the senate be equally divided.

Sec. 11. The senate shall choose all other officers of their body, and
a president pro tempore, in the absence of the vice-president; shall have the sole
power to try impeachments, and when sitting as a court of impeachment, shall be under
oath; but no conviction shall take place without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the
members present.

Sec. 12. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall only extend to removal
from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under this
government; but the party shall nevertheless be liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and
punishment, according to law.

Sec. 13. Each house shall be the judge of the elections,
qualifications, and returns of its own members. Two-thirds of each house shall constitute
a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel
the attendance of absent members.

Sec. 14. Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings,
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, may
expel a member, but not a second time for the same offense.

Sec. 15. Senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for
their services to be fixed by law, but no increase of compensation, or diminution, shall
effect during the session at which such increase or diminution shall have been made. They
shall, except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from
arrest during the session of congress, and in going to and returning from the same; and
for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other place.

Sec. 16. Each house may punish, by imprisonment, during the session,
any person not a member, who shall be guilty of any disrespect to the house, by any
disorderly conduct in their presence.

Sec. 17. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and
publish the same, except such parts as in its judgment require secrecy. When any three
members shall desire the years and nays on any question, they shall be entered on the
journals.

Sec. 18. Neither house, without the consent of the other, shall adjourn
for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses may be
sitting.

Sec. 19. When vacancies happen in either house, the executive shall
issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

Sec. 20. No bill shall become a law until it shall have been read on
three several days in each house and passed by the same, unless, in cases of emergency,
two-thirds of the members of the house where the bill originated shall deem it expedient
to dispense with the rule.

Sec. 21. After a bill shall have been rejected, no bill containing the
same substance shall be passed into a law during the same session.

Sec. 22. The style of the laws of the republic shall be, "Be it
enacted by the senate and house of representative of the republic of Texas in congress
assembled."

Sec. 23. No person holding an office of profit under the government
shall be eligible to a seat in either house of congress, nor shall any member of either
house be eligible to any office which may be created or the profits of which shall be
increased during his term of service.

Sec. 24. No holder of public moneys, or collector thereof, shall be
eligible to a seat in either house of congress until he shall have fully acquitted himself
of all responsibility, and shall produce the proper officer's receipt thereof. Members of
either house may protest against any act or resolution, and may have such protest entered
on the journals of their respective houses.

Sec. 25. No money shall be drawn from the public treasury but in strict
accordance with appropriations made by law; and no appropriations shall be made for
private or local purposes unless two-thirds of each house concur in such appropriations.

Sec. 26. Every act of congress shall be approved and signed by the
president before it becomes a law; but if the president will not approve and sign such
act, he shall return it to the house in which it shall have originated with his reasons
for not approving the same, which shall be spread upon the journals of such house, and the
bill shall then be reconsidered, and shall not become a law unless it shall then pass by a
vote of two-thirds of both houses. If any act shall be disapproved by the president, the
vote on the reconsideration shall be recorded by ayes and noes. If the president shall
fair to return a bill within five days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been
presented for his approval and signature, the same shall become a law, unless the congress
prevent its return within the time above specified by adjournment.

Sec. 27. All bills, acts, orders, or resolutions to which the
concurrence of both houses may be necessary (motions or resolutions for adjournment
excepted) shall be approved and signed by the president, or, being disapproved, shall be
passed by two-thirds of both houses, in manner and form as specified in section twenty.

ARTICLE II.

[Congressional Powers]

Section 1. Congress shall have power to levy and collect taxes and
imposts, excise and tonnage duties; to borrow money on the faith, credit, and property of
the government; to pay the debts, and to provide for the common defence and general
welfare.

Sec. 2. To regulate commerce, to coin money, to regulate the value
thereof and of foreign coin, to fix the standard of weights and measures; but nothing but
gold and silver shall be made a lawful tender.

Sec. 3. To establish post-offices and post-roads, to grant charters of
incorporation, patents, and copyrights, and secure to the authors and inventors the
exclusive use thereof for a limited time.

Sec. 4. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to
regulate captures.

Sec. 5. To provide and maintain an army and navy, and to make all laws
and regulations necessary for their government.

Sec. 6. To call out the militia to execute the law, to suppress
insurrections, and repel invasion.

Sec. 7. To make all laws which shall be deemed necessary and proper to
carry into effect the foregoing express grants of power, and all other powers vested in
the government of the republic, or in any officer or department thereof.

ARTICLE III.

[The Executive Branch]

Section 1. The executive authority of this government shall be vested
in a chief magistrate, who shall be styled the president of the republic of Texas.

Sec. 2. The first president elected by the people shall hold his office
for the term of two years, and shall be ineligible during the next succeeding term; and
all subsequent presidents shall be elected for three years, and be alike ineligible; and
in the event of a tie, the house of representatives shall determine between the two
highest candidates by a viva-voce vote.

Sec. 3. The returns of the elections for president and vice-president
shall be sealed up and transmitted to the speaker of the house of representatives by the
holders of elections of each county; and the speaker of the house of representatives shall
open and public the returns in presence of a majority of each house of congress.

ARTICLE IV.

[The Judicial Branch]

Section 1. The judicial powers of the government shall be vested in one
supreme court, and such inferior courts as the congress may, from time to time, ordain and
establish. The judges of the supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices for four
years, be eligible to re-election, and shall, at stated periods, receive for their
services a compensation, not to be increased or diminished during the period for which
they were elected.

Sec. 2. The republic of Texas shall be divided into convenient judicial
districts, not less than three nor more than eight. There shall be appointed for each
district a judge, who shall reside in the same, and hold the courts at such times and
places as congress may by law direct.

Sec. 3. In all admiralty and maritime cases, in all cases affecting
ambassadors, public ministers, or consuls, and in all capital cases, the district courts
shall have exclusive original jurisdiction, and original jurisdiction in all civil cases
when the matter in controversy amounts to one hundred dollars.

Sec. 4. The judges, by virtue of their offices, shall be conservators
of the peace throughout the republic. The style of all process shall be, "The
Republic of Texas;" and all prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the
authority of the same, and conclude, "against the peace and dignity of the
republic."

Sec. 5. There shall be a district attorney appointed for each district,
whose duties, salaries, perquisites, and term of service shall be fixed by law.

Sec. 6. The clerks of the district courts shall be elected by the
qualified voters for members of congress, in the counties where the courts are
established, and shall hold their offices for four years, subject to removal by
presentment of a grand jury, and conviction of a petit jury.

Sec. 7. The supreme court shall consist of a chief-justice and
associate judges; the district judges shall compose the associate judges, a majority of
whom, with the chief-justice, shall constitute a quorum.

Sec. 8. The supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which
shall be conclusive within the limits of the republic; and shall hold its sessions
annually at such times and places as may be fixed by law: Provided, That no judge
shall sit in a case in the supreme court tried by him in the court below.

Sec. 9. The judges of the supreme and district courts shall be elected
by joint ballot of both houses of congress.

Sec. 10. There shall be in each county a county court, and such
justices' courts as the congress may, from time to time, establish.

Sec. 11. The republic shall be divided into convenient counties, but no
new county shall be established unless it be done on the petition of one hundred free male
inhabitants of the territory sought to be laid off and established, and unless the said
territory shall contain nine hundred square miles.

Sec. 12. There shall be appointed for each county a convenient number
of justices of the peace, one sheriff, one coroner, and a sufficient number of constables,
who shall hold their offices for two years, to be elected by the qualified voters of the
district or county, as congress may direct. Justices of the peace and sheriff shall be
commissioned by the president.

Sec. 13. The congress shall, as early as practicable, introduce, by
statute, the common law of England, with such modifications as our circumstances, in their
judgment, may require; and in all criminal cases the common law shall be the rule of
decision.

ARTICLE V.

[Disqualifications]

Section 1. Ministers of the gospel being, by their profession,
dedicated to God and the care of souls, ought not to be diverted from the great duties of
their functions; therefore, no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination
whatever, shall be eligible to the office of the executive of the republic, nor to a seat
in either branch of the congress of the same.

Sec. 2. Each member of the senate and house of representatives shall,
before they proceed to business, take an oath to support the constitution, as follows:

"I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that,
as a member of this general congress, I will support the constitution of the republic, and
that I will not propose or assent to any bill, vote, or resolution which shall appear to
me injurious to the people."

Sec. 3. Every person who shall be chosen or appointed to any office of
trust or profit shall, before entering on the duties thereof, take an oath to support the
constitution of the republic, and also an oath of office.

ARTICLE VI.

[Presidential Qualifications, Powers, and the Franchise]

Section 1. No person shall be eligible to the office of president who
shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, shall be a citizen of the republic
at the time of the adoption of this constitution, or an inhabitant of this republic at
least three years immediately preceding his election.

Sec. 2. The president shall enter on the duties of his office on the
second Monday in December next succeeding his election, and shall remain in office until
his successor shall be duly qualified.

Sec. 3. The president shall, at stated times, receive a compensation
for his services, which shall not be increased or diminished during his continuance in
office; and, before entering upon the duties of his office, he shall take and subscribe
the following oath or affirmation:

"I, A. B., president of the republic of Texas, do solemnly swear
(or affirm, as the case may be) that I will faithfully execute the duties of my office,
and to the best of my abilities preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the
republic."

Sec. 4. He shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the
republic, and militia thereof, but he shall not command in person without the authority of
a resolution of congress. He shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, and to grant
reprieves and pardons, except in cases of impeachment.

Sec. 5. He shall, with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the
senate, make treaties; and, with the consent of the senate, appoint ministers and consuls,
and all officers whose offices are established by this constitution, not herein otherwise
provided for.

Sec. 6. The president shall have power to fill all vacancies that may
happen during the recess of the senate; but he shall report the same to the senate within
ten days after the next congress shall convene; and should the senate reject the same, the
president shall not renominate the same individual to the same office.

Sec. 7. He shall, from time to time, give congress information of the
state of the republic, and recommend for their consideration such measures as he may deem
necessary. He may, upon extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them.
In the event of a disagreement as to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such
time as he may think proper. He shall receive all foreign ministers. He shall see that the
laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the republic.

Sec. 8. There shall be a seal of the republic, which shall be kept by
the president, and used by him officially; it shall be called the great seal of the
republic of Texas.

Sec. 9. All grants and commissions shall be in the name and by the
authority of the republic of Texas, shall be sealed with the great seal, and signed by the
president.

Sec. 10. The president shall have power, by and with the advice and
consent of the senate, to appoint a secretary of state, and such other heads of executive
departments as may be established by law, who shall remain in office during the term of
service of the president, unless sooner removed by the president, with the advice and
consent of the senate.

Sec. 11. Every citizen of the republic who has attained the age of
twenty-one years, and shall have resided six months within the district or county where
the election is held, shall be entitled to vote for members of the general congress.

Sec. 13. All elections by joint vote of both houses of congress shall
be viva voce, shall be entered on the journals, and a majority of the votes shall
be necessary to a choice.

Sec. 14. A vice-president shall be chosen at every election for
president, in the same manner, continue in office for the same time, and shall possess the
same qualifications of the president. In voting for president and vice-president, the
electors shall distinguish for whom they vote as president and for whom as vice-president.

Sec. 15. In cases of impeachment, removal from office, death,
resignation, or absence of the president from the republic, the vice-president shall
exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the president until a successor be duly
qualified or until the president, who may be absent or impeached, shall return or be
acquitted.

Sec. 16. The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the
republic shall be removable from office by impeachment for, and on conviction of, treason,
bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.

SCHEDULE

Section 1. That no inconvenience may arise from the adoption of this
constitution, it is declared by this convention that all laws now in force in Texas, and
not inconsistent with this constitution, shall remain in full force until declared void,
repealed, altered, or expire by their own limitation.

Sec. 2. All fines, penalties, forfeitures, and escheats which have
accrued to Coahuila and Texas, or Texas, shall accrue to this republic.

Sec. 3. Every male citizen who is by this constitution a citizen and
shall be otherwise qualified shall be entitled to hold any office or place of honor,
trust, or profit under the republic, anything in this constitution to the contrary
notwithstanding.

Sec. 4. The first president and vice-president that shall be appointed
after the adoption of this constitution shall be chosen by this convention, and shall
immediately enter on the duties of their offices, and shall hold said offices until their
successors be elected and qualified, as prescribed in this constitution, and shall have
the same qualifications, be invested with the same powers, and perform the same duties
which are required and conferred on the executive head of the republic by this
constitution.

Sec. 5. The president shall issue writs of election directed to the
officers authorized to hold elections of the several counties, requiring them to cause an
election to be held for president, vice-president, representatives, and senators to
congress, at the time and mode prescribed by this constitution, which election shall be
conducted in the manner that elections have been heretofore conducted. The president,
vice-president, and members of congress, when duly elected, shall continue to discharge
the duties of their respective offices for the time and manner prescribed by this
constitution, until their successors be duly qualified.

Sec. 6. Until the first enumeration shall be made as directed by this
constitution, the precinct of Austin shall be entitled to one representative; the precinct
of Brazoria to two representatives; the precinct of Bexar two representatives; the
precinct of Colorado one representative; Sabine one, Gonzales one; Goliad one; Harrisburgh
one; Jasper one; Jefferson one; Liberty one; Matagorda one; Mina two; Nacogdoches two; Red
River three; Victoria one; San Augustine two; Shelby two; Refugio one; San Patricio one;
Washington two; Milan one; and Jackson one representative.

Sec. 7. Until the first enumeration shall be made as described by this
constitution, the senatorial districts shall be composed of the following precincts: Bexar
shall be entitled to one senator; San Patricio, Refugio, and Goliad one; Brazoria one;
Mina and Gonzales one; Nacogdoches one; Red River one; Shelby and Sabine one; Washington
one; Matagorda, Jackson, and Victoria one; Austin and Colorado one; San Augustine one;
Milam one; Jasper and Jefferson one; and Liberty and Harrisburgh one senator.

Sec. 8. All judges, sheriffs, commissioners, and other civil officers
shall remain in office, and in the discharge of the powers and duties of their respective
offices, until there shall be others appointed or elected under the constitution.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

Section 1. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, from the right of
suffrage, and from serving on juries, those who shall hereafter be convicted of bribery,
perjury, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Sec. 2. Returns of all elections for officers who are to be
commissioned by the president shall be made to the secretary of state of this republic.

Sec. 3. The presidents and heads of departments shall keep their
offices at the seat of government, unless removed by the permission of congress, or
unless, in cases of emergency in time of war, the public interest may require their
removal.

Sec. 4. The president shall make use of his private seal, until a seal
of the republic shall be provided.

Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of congress, as soon as circumstances will
permit, to provide by law a general system of education.

Sec. 6. All free white persons who shall emigrate to this republic, and
who shall, after a residence of six months, make oath before some competent authority that
he intends to reside permanently in the same, and shall swear to support this
constitution, and that he will bear true allegiance to the republic of Texas, shall be
entitled to all the privileges of citizenship.

Sec. 7. So soon as convenience will permit, there shall be a penal code
formed on principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice; and the civil and
criminal laws shall be revised, digested, and arranged under different heads; and all laws
relating to land-titles shall be translated, revised, and promulgated.

Sec. 8. All persons who shall leave the country for the purpose of
evading a participation in the present struggle, or shall refuse to participate in it, or
shall give aid or assistance to the present enemy, shall forfeit all rights of
citizenship, and such lands as they may hold in the republic.

Sec. 9. All persons of color who were slaves for life previous to their
emigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of
servitude: Provided, The said slave shall be the bona-fide property of the
person so holding said slave as aforesaid. Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit
emigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the
same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall congress have
power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slaveholder be allowed to emancipate his or her
slave or slaves without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his or her
slave or slaves without the limits of the republic. No free person of African descent,
either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the republic
without the consent of congress; and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes
into this republic, excepting from the United States of America, is forever prohibited,
and declared to be piracy.

Sec. 10. All persons (Africans, the descendants of Africans, and
Indians excepted) who were residing in Texas on the day of the declaration of independence
shall be considered citizens of the republic and entitled to all the privileges of such.
All citizens now living in Texas who have not received their portion of land in like
manner as colonists shall be entitled to their land in the following proportion and
manner: Every head of a family shall be entitled to one league and labor of land; and
every single man of the age of seventeen and upwards shall be entitled to the third part
of one league of land. All citizens who may have, previously to the adoption of this
constitution, received their league of land as heads of families, and their quarter of a
league as single persons, shall receive such additional quantity as will make the quantity
of land received by them equal to one league and labor, and one-third of a league, unless
by bargain, sale, or exchange they have transferred, or may henceforth transfer, their
right to said land, or a portion thereof, to some other citizen of the republic; and in
such case, the person to whom such right shall have been transferred shall be entitled to
the same as fully and amply as the persons asking the transfer might or could have been.
No alien shall hold land in Texas except by titles emanating directly from the government
of this republic. But if any citizen of this republic should die intestate or otherwise
his children or heirs shall inherit his estate, and aliens shall have a reasonable time to
take possession of and dispose of the same, in a manner hereafter to be pointed out by
law. Orphan children whose parents were entitled to land under the colonization laws of
Mexico and who now reside in the republic shall be entitled to all the rights of which
their parents were possessed at the time of their death. The citizens of the republic
shall not be compelled to reside on the land, but shall have their lines plainly marked.

All orders of survey legally obtained by any citizen of the republic
from any legally-authorized commissioner, prior to the act of the late consultation
closing the land-offices, shall be valid. In all cases, the actual settler and occupant of
the soil shall be entitled, in locating his land, to include his improvement, in
preference to all other claims not acquired previous to his settlement, according to the
law of the land and this constitution: Provided, That nothing herein contained
shall prejudice the rights of any other citizen from whom a settler may hold land by rent
or lease.

And whereas the protection of the public domain from unjust and
fraudulent claims and quieting the people in the enjoyment of their lands is one of the
great duties of this convention; and whereas the legislature of Coahuila and Texas having
passed an act in the year 1834 in behalf of General John T. Mason, of New York, and
another on the 14th day of March, 1835, under which the enormous amount of eleven hundred
leagues of land has been claimed by sundry individuals, some of whom reside in foreign
countries, and are not citizens of the republic--which said acts are contrary to articles
fourth, twelfth, and fifteenth of the laws of 1824 of the general congress of Mexico, and
one of said acts for that cause has by said general congress of Mexico been declared null
and void--it is hereby declared that the said act of 1834, in favor of John T. Mason, and
of the 14th of March, 1835, of the said legislature of Coahuila and Texas, and each and
every grant founded thereon, is and was from the very beginning null and void; and all
surveys made under pretence of authority derived from said acts are hereby declared to be
null and void; and all eleven-league claims, located within twenty leagues of the
boundary-line between Texas and the United States of America which may have been located
contrary to the laws of Mexico, are hereby declared to be bull and void. And whereas many
surveys and titles to lands have been made whilst most of the people of texas were absent
from home, serving in the campaign against Bexar, it is hereby declared that all the
surveys and locations of land made since the act of the late consultation closing the
land-offices, and all titles to land made since that time, are and shall be null and void.

And whereas the present unsettled state of the country and the general
welfare of the people demand that the operations of the land-office and the whole
land-system shall be suspended until persons serving in the army can have a fair and equal
chance with those remaining at home to select and locate their lands, it is hereby
declared that no survey or title which may hereafter be made shall be valid unless such
survey or title shall be authorized by this convention, or some future congress of the
republic. And with a view to the simplification of the of the land-system, and the
protection of the people and the government from litigation and fraud, a general
land-office shall be established, where all the land-titles of the republic shall be
registered, and the whole territory of the republic shall be sectionized, in a manner
hereafter to be prescribed by law, which shall enable the officers of government, or any
citizen, to ascertain with certainty the lands that are vacant, and those lands which may
be covered with valid titles.

Sec. 11. Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be
proposed in the house of representatives or senate, and if the same shall be agreed to by
a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendments or
amendments shall be entered on the journals, with the yeas and nays thereon, and referred
to the congress then next to be chosen, and shall be published for three months previous
to the election; and if the congress next chosen as aforesaid shall pass said amendment or
amendments by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, then it shall
be the duty of said congress to submit said proposed amendment or amendments to the people
in such manner and at such times as the congress shall prescribe; and if the people shall
approve and ratify such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors qualified to
vote for members of congress voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a
part of this constitution: Provided, however, That no amendment or amendments be
referred to the people oftener than once in three years.

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

This declaration of rights is declared to be a part of this
constitution, and shall never be violated on any pretence whatever. And in order to guard
against the transgression of the high powers which we have delegated, we declare that
everything in this bill of rights contained, and every other right not hereby delegated,
is reserved to the people.

1st. All men, when they form a social compact, have equal rights; and
no men or set of men are entitled to exclusive public privileges or emoluments from the
community.

2nd. All political power is inherent in the people, and all free
governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and they have
at all times an inalienable right to alter their government in such manner as they may
think proper.

3rd. No preference shall be given by law to any religious denomination
or mode or worship over another, but every person shall be permitted to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience.

4th. Every citizen shall be at liberty to speak, write, or publish his
opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege. No law shall
ever be passed to curtail the liberty of speech or of the press; and in all prosecutions
for libels the truth may be given in evidence, and the jury shall have the right to
determine the law and fact, under the direction of the court.

5th. The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
possessions, from all unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant shall issue to
search any place or seize any person or thing, without describing the place to be searched
or the person or thing to be seized, without probable cause, supported by oath or
affirmation.

6th. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right of
being heard, by himself or counsel, or both; he shall have the right to demand the nature
and cause of the accusation; shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, and have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor. And in all prosecutions by
presentment or indictment, he shall have the right to a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury; he shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself, or be deprived
of life, liberty, or property, but by due course of law. And no freeman shall be holden to
answer for any criminal charge but on presentment or indictment by a grand jury, except in
the land and naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or
public danger, or in cases of impeachment.

7th. No citizen shall be deprived of privileges, outlawed, exiled, or
in any manner disfranchised, except by due course of the law of the land.

8th. No title of nobility, hereditary privileges, or honors shall ever
be granted or conferred in this republic. No person holding any office of profit or trust
shall, without the consent of congress, receive from any foreign state any present,
office, or emolument of any kind.

9th. No person, for the same offence, shall be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limbs. And the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate.

10th. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient security, unless for
capital crimes, when the proof is evident or presumption strong; and the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except in cases of rebellion or
invasion the public safety may require it.

11th. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, or cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. All courts shall be open and every man
for any injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation shall have remedy by
due course of law.

12th. No person shall be imprisoned for debt in consequence of
inability to pay.

13th. No person's particular services shall be demanded, nor property
taken or applied to public uses, unless by the consent of himself or his representative,
without just compensation being made therefor according to law.

14th. Every citizen shall have the right to bear arms in defence of
himself and the republic.

The military shall at all times and in all cases be subordinate to the
civil power.

15th. The sure and certain defence of a free people is a well-regulated
militia; and it shall be the duty of the legislature to enact such laws as may be
necessary to the organizing of the militia of this republic.

16th. Treason against this republic shall consist only in levying war
against it, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and support. No retrospective or
ex post facto law, or laws impairing the obligations of contracts, shall be made.

17th. Perpetuities or monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free
government, and shall not be allowed; nor shall the law of primogeniture or entailments
ever be in force in this republic.

The foregoing constitution was unanimously adopted by the delegates of
Texas, in convention assembled, at the town of Washington, on the 17th day of March, in
the year of our Lord [1836], and of the independence of the republic the first year.